Anilrgowda

Microsoft Windows Vista has been fully cracked just weeks after its release. The pirate group Pantheon has released a crack that allows a pirated installation of Windows Vista - Home Basic, Premium, and Ultimate - to be properly activates and is fully operational. Unlike other cracks that have been floating around the Web since the release of the Vista RTM release in November, this Pantheon crack doesn't just get around the product activation, it actually makes use of the activation process.

It was reported that Microsoft some large OEMs such as ASUS to ship their products with a pre-installed version of Windows Vista that does not require Vista to be activated. This version of Vista uses System-Locked Pre-Installation 2.0, or SLP 2.0. This version allows the OEM to embed specific licensing information into the operating system that allows Vista to activate without the requirement of going back to Microsoft to verify the activation. The licensing components included are the OEM's hardware-embedded BIOS ACPI_SLIC that has been signed by Microsoft, an XML certificate file corresponding to the ACPI_SLIC, and an OEM specific product key.

The pirate group Pantheon released a bundle that includes the certificate files from Dell, HP, ASUS, and Lenovo along with OEM product keys for Windows Vista Home Basic, Premium, and Ultimate plus an emulator which allows the BIOS ACPI_SLIC driver for any manufacturer to be installed without requiring the system to be physically running that hardware. In effect, the user can install an HP or Dell certificate information on any machine, not just Dell or HP. This means that the user will end up with a "legitimate" copy of Vista that passes all of the Windows Genuine Advantage checks.

Hacker groups are well known for exploiting any weakness, no matter how small. And by Microsoft allowing OEMs this workaround just so their customers wouldn't have the "inconvenience" of having to activate their version of Vista is just such a weakness. The crack is tied to specific product keys so it remains to be seen whether or not Microsoft will be able to do anything about shutting out the machines already activated using this method. Now Microsoft's job will be that much harder now that these machines have completely bypassed the online activation process as they are now connected as fully-functional "legitimate" copies of Vista.

Source:Microsoft Windows Vista Fully Cracked